Heart and Soul

Every week Father Michael Pfleger takes to social media to share the number of people killed over the past few days in his city, Chicago. The numbers are almost always in double figures and many of the dead are young African-American men shot on the streets that surround his church, St Sabina’s, in the almost entirely black suburb of Auburn-Gresham.

Rajini Vaidyanathan meets Father Pfleger after Sunday Mass, to explore with him why he has devoted his life’s work to trying to rid Auburn-Gresham of gun crime. Whilst the vast majority of this congregation is African American, Father Pfleger is white. Meeting with his parishioners Rajini discovers how personal his crusade has become. General Ware, a young man recently out of prison describes how Father Mike took him in after he found him wandering the streets late at night. Mothers Annette Nance Holt and Pam Bosley describe how Father Mike help them to find their faith again after the tragic loss of their teenage sons, both shot and killed. Father Mike shares how he has personally been affected by guns, his adopted son Jarvis shot just yards from his church door.

While many praise the work of Father Pfleger, there are others who argue some of it is cosmetic and that real change must come from within the black community itself. Maze Jackson discusses Father Mike’s role within the community and whether change can be sustained.

The Radical Disciple was presented by Rajini Vaidyanathan and produced by David McGuire and Claire Press

Photo credit: Andrew Burton

He is he says, on a mission from God, Robert Berman’s lifelong campaign for organ donation to be permissible under Jewish/Talmudic law – Halacha – is at the centre of an ongoing debate in Israel. Berman, a Harvard University graduate, is striving to change attitudes to the donating of organs and possibly redefine the strict and ancient definition of death.

She takes to the street of Jerusalem amongst the religious Jews to explore with the faithful their attitudes to donating and receiving organs and whether there is a chance that the rules over when a person is dead can be altered to make donation allowable under Talmudic law.

To find out more please click on www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38230114

In the centre of Patan City in Nepal resides a living goddess, a child as young as four, chosen to host a deity of invincible feminine power. On her young shoulders rests the fate of the nation.

Goddesses in many religious traditions around the world exist only in the spiritual realm, symbolised by statues and icons. But in Nepal they live and breathe and take the form of young girls – the kumari. For centuries Hindus and Buddhists across the Kathmandu Valley have worshiped these young Buddhist girls believed to be possessed by the Hindu goddess Taleju. Selected so young, it is no easy task being a kumari – for reasons of purity they are taken out of school, only allowed to communicate with a select few, and are not allowed to walk on the ground outside of their homes. They are expected to sit still for long hours whilst giving blessings to thousands of visitors. But the kumari’s reign as a living deity is short. Upon her first period she is retired and replaced. Her powers are believed instantly lost and she must then negotiate how to become a normal teenager.

As part of the 100 Women Season, Sahar Zand joins the thousands of Nepalese Hindus and Buddhists on leave from work and school as they celebrate the national festival of Dashain. Sahar explores the symbolic status of blood, the importance of sacrificing animals during Dashain festival and why when a kumari first menstruates the goddess is believed to vacate her body. Sahar meets solicitor Subin Mulmi who argues the strict rules of purity and segregation surrounding the kumari are detrimental to the child’s freedom and education. However, a former kumari Chanira Bajracharya, who despite describing the trauma of her first day transitioning from goddess to mortal, advocates this ancient tradition must be continued for the spiritual and cultural identity of Nepal.

Huge numbers of Gypsies and travellers across Europe now say they've joined a new movement called Light and Life. Those who join have given up on some parts of their lives that have become associated with being a Gypsy, such as drinking alcohol and fortune-telling, with many even abandoned their traditional Catholic faith.

The Gypsy led, Pentecostal movement, has grown rapidly in the past 3 decades - it claims that up to 40% of British Gypsies worship within it, whether that’s actually true, there is no doubt, there has a surge in people joining this vibrant church founded in France.

Alex Strangwayes-Booth travels to France to the biggest come together of evangelical Gypsys in Europe where she finds out about the history of the Light and Life church and how it has grown, converting gypsys and travellers from Catholicism and in in many cases transforming their lives.

Producer and Presenter: Alex Strangwayes-Booth

Donald Trump predicted that if he won the votes of America's evangelical Christians he would win the election, and he was right.

A quarter of all voters count themselves as evangelical and 81% of them voted for Trump, despite the deep misgivings and public disagreements among Christian leaders over whether their conscience would allow them to endorse him.

Jane Little speaks to four leading evangelical leaders about how they define evangelical Christianity, their hopes and misgivings for the Trump presidency, what role Christian teachings will now play in shaping the country and whether we are in a new era for the religious right in the United States.

Presented by Jane Little, produced by Claire Press and Richard McIlroy.

Donald Trump joins evangelical Christians in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

25 years ago this month Terry Waite returned to the UK after nearly five years of captivity in Beirut. During the violent and destabilising civil war in Lebanon he had been sent by the Church of England to negotiate for the release of several hostages – but he was kidnapped and imprisoned himself by Hezbollah militants. His capture made news around the world and for a long time there was no information on whether he was alive.

During his years of solitary confinement, Terry’s courage and faith were so strong that although he was denied any writing materials, in his head he managed to write a book and conceive ideas for poems. This November, Terry Waite will release his second publication; a book of poems entitled, 'Out of the Silence'. Ahead of the collection's publication, Samira Ahmed meets Terry at his home in the heart of the English countryside. She explores his deeply held faith throughout his turbulent journey. Terry describes how the central Christian teaching of forgiveness drove him to return to Lebanon to meet with both Hezbollah officials and Syrian and Iraqi Christians.

Reading can be solitary, peaceful, a moment to be alone with your own thoughts, but it can also provide collective wisdom and shared experience.

This week as part of the #LovetoRead season across the BBC, six religious leaders from around the world have chosen a single book that has a unique place in their spiritual lives, a non-religious text, but one that has enriched and informed their faith.

We’ll hear from Ilyasah Shabazz, Sunni activist and daughter of Malcom X, London based Syrian Revd. Nadim Nassar, the Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger, Nigerian Pastor and interfaith activist Esther Ibanga, Ahmadi leader Imam Atta-Ul Naseer and Sikh theologian Valarie Kaur.

Power of the Word was produced in Salford by Claire Press.

Right next to the city of Detroit, Michigan is Hamtramck, the first Muslim majority city in the United States. Just over 50% of the residents are immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen and Bosnia. There are ten mosques in just over 2 square miles, as well as Islamic private schools. But only a few decades ago, the city was dominated by Polish immigrants with their Catholic churches and schools.

Long before Donald Trump made Muslim immigration a focus of his election campaign, Hamtramck made international headlines as the two groups occasionally clashed over issues of faith.

In this episode of Heart & Soul Jennifer Chevalier explores the streets of Hamtramck, visiting its mosques and churches, meeting local residents and asking: can faith now help bring this city together?

(Photo: The Islamic Center of Hamtramck. Credit: Scott Olson)

David Baker is a practising and proud Jew. He is also gay and in the eyes of many of his fellow Jews the two cannot go together. He has had to wrestle with these two sides to his identity leading to many hours of praying and soul searching, exploring whether he could still remain within his faith.

Just after the Orlando shootings in June he was invited to the Iftar, the fast breaking meal in Islam, alongside LGBT Muslims and it was there that he realised that Jews and Muslims have more in common than he had first thought.

David has been to meet fellow Jews and Muslims who have had to wrestle with their faith, explore the teachings and scriptures and argue with God to come to a place in their lives where their sexuality does not preclude them from being faithful.

(Photo: A man wears a rainbow coloured crocheted skull cap. Credit: Thomas Coex)

The Amazigh women of Morocco have faced threats to their strong traditions and distinct religious identity for thousands of years. Celeste Hicks travelled high into the Atlas Mountains to find out how the Amazigh are dealing with a new threat – a stricter traditional version of Islam that could undermine their unique way of practising their faith.

She hears how the Amazigh are trying to hold on to many of their traditions such as carpet weaving and facial tattoos which the conservative forces that are becoming more influential would find ‘haram’ or forbidden. The Amazigh women are a strong independent force in their historic tribe which date back to the days of Jesus' time on earth and holding on to that identity is a continuing struggle.

(Photo: Amazigh women with facial tattoos carry their children on their backs)

*The programme have been re-edited since it was first broadcast to ensure that certain translations are more accurate*